Charles Harding

Background

About Charles Harding

Charles Harding (he/him) is a sound maker and cultural worker living in Tiohti:áke/Mooniyang/Montréal who’s been actively involved in music composition and facilitation for well over a decade. Computer music creation is at the center of his process, whether he’s collaging sound after patching a spaghetti of wires on a modular synthesizer or vibing out on beaches with a field recorder to collect the tiny sounds of crackling seaweed. Between 2018-2022 he received formal training in electroacoustic composition from Concordia University in Montréal, QC and has since been working to create music that brings awareness to nature and human presence. To this end he recently released a collection of soundscape pieces called Rain Beast (June 2022, Patient Records), which depicts a sonic collage of field recordings collected between 2018-2021 in New Brunswick and Montréal, QC. These pieces are meant to highlight some of the interspecies relationships and dissonances present in several key human-populated areas that Charlie considers home. Alongside his creative practice he has a long history of production experience surrounding art and music. Over the past decade he has worked in varying organisational roles across several hundred events throughout eastern Canada. Throughout 2022 to June 2023, he served as a cultural worker, performing roles at a Montréal artist-run centre called Eastern Bloc, specializing in programming of digital arts, and serving as a creative hub in the historic garment district of Chabanel. He is also the digital marketing/ticket manager for the CAP/Shivering Songs in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and is a board member of FLOURISH Festival. A recent career highlight was his role as Festival Coordinator for SIGHT+SOUND 2022 presented by Eastern Bloc in Montréal, CA. The 4-night digital arts festival hosted over 30 local/international artists with diverse programming including audiovisual performances, a gallery exhibition/vernissage, as well as several workshops and talks. The festival was recently announced as a finalist for the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s 37th Grand Prix award, celebrating significant cultural contributions to the city. Charlie is also a part of an electroacoustic composers collective called Trajectories, currently based in Montréal. In February 2023 the group released their first full-length album Blood & Breath, an hourlong odyssey of dark ambience, synthesis, and noise.